Stephen Ball, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Gainesville, FLNPI 1477556371
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 50 payments — averaging $44.45 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Artivion, Inc.$570
- Medtronic$390
- Edwards Lifesciences$248
- Ancora Heart, Inc.$205
- Getinge USA Sales, LLC$188
- Atricure, Inc.$171
- plus $450 from 9 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$2059%
- Food & beverage$2,01891%
Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.
General payments by program year
Who reported the general payments
Companies are grouped under their corporate parent — a single manufacturer often files under several CMS reporting entities. Research and ownership payments are counted separately and are not in this table.
| Company | Payments | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Artivion, Inc. | 7 | $570 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 7 | $390 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 13 | $248 |
| Ancora Heart, Inc. | 1 | $205 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 5 | $188 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 3 | $171 |
| Abiomed | 3 | $159 |
| LSI Solutions Inc | 3 | $112 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 1 | $47 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 2 | $30 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $30 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $21 |
| Biom'up France SAS | 1 | $19 |
| Reel Surgical, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Hemosonics LLC | 1 | $14 |
What the payments were tied to
Products named in the reported payments. Only payments of $100 or more are attributed here — the typical reported payment nationally is a meal worth about $16, and listing those product-by-product would be noise.
How this compares
$2,223 in reported general payments places this provider in the 25th percentile of 408 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Florida.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Florida →
Medicare billing
What this is not: this is the amount Original Medicare Part B allowed for services this provider billed in 2024. It is not their income. It excludes Medicare Advantage — now more than half of all Medicare enrollment — along with Medicaid and all commercial insurance, and it is gross practice revenue before staff, rent, supplies and malpractice premiums. CMS also suppresses any figure covering ten or fewer patients, so low-volume providers appear smaller than they are.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Gainesville
- Thomas BeaverGainesville$1.9M
- Charles KlodellGainesville$820K
- Eric JengGainesville$149K
- George ArnaoutakisGainesville$88K
- Anthony NunezOrlando$4.8M
- Brian BetheaDelray Beach$1.8M
- Joshua RovinClearwater$1.7M
- Kevin AccolaOrlando$1.7M
- Andrew ShermanTampa$1.6M
- Abelardo VargasSunny Isles Beach$1.1M
Where these figures come from
- Payments: CMS Open Payments, program years 2019–2025 (publication P06302026_06032026).
- Billing: Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, data year 2024. Original Medicare Part B only.
- Identity: NPPES NPI Registry, July 2026.